Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is known as one of the greatest NBA players the game has ever seen. He’s usually in fans’ top three for the NBA G.O.A.T. debate, but when you factor in his college career, there’s truly no debate.
Kareem’s UCLA Bruins won three national titles and compiled an insane 88-2 record in his three collegiate years. In totality, Kareem is the greatest basketball player who has ever lived.
The same can be said about legendary martial artist Bruce Lee. Most people think of Bruce Lee as just an actor, but he was more than that. Bruce single-handedly made Chinese martial arts, and martial arts in general, popular in the United States back in the early 1970s.
You could say Bruce is the G.O.A.T. of martial artists. This is especially true of the modern era of martial artists. Bruce is the greatest, as no other martial artist can come close to reaching Bruce’s popularity in pop culture.
So, when I tell you that these two G.O.A.T.s of their respective crafts were actually friends in real life, this has to mean there must be some special stories about their time together.
In this article, we’ll explain how this unlikely friendship developed between these two legends. You’ll discover it was Bruce’s wife, Linda, who brought the two together and changed the game for Kareem.
Kareem Learns Bruce Lee’s Martial Art And Philosophy
Kareem met Bruce when he was playing basketball at UCLA. The basketball star was looking to get back into martial arts, as he trained in a Japanese martial art style back in New York.
While out in California, Kareem wanted to continue his martial arts training, and he looked to get back to the same Japanese style he was learning in New York. Kareem was friends with someone who knew the editor of Black Belt Magazine, the top martial arts magazine, and asked if he knew a good place to train.
The editor of Black Belt Magazine told Kareem that rather than studying Japanese martial arts, he should meet up with a Chinese guy who created his own unique style of martial arts. This guy was, of course, Bruce Lee.
Bruce wasn’t a fan of traditional one-way figuring styles, he believed that the fighter should be able to express themselves freely and not feel trapped into a certain set of moments. Because of this philosophy, Bruce created his own martial art called Jeet Kune Do, which meant ‘The Way of the Intercepting Fist.’
This martial art style conceived by Bruce is said to have paved the way for mixed martial arts, including the popular UFC fighting league. Before Bruce ever became a martial arts movie star, he was a teacher of his art, first opening stores around California and Seattle.
Bruce eventually taught private lessons to Hollywood stars, who either wanted to jump into the martial arts craze that was slowly forming or to prepare for a fight scene in a movie. Bruce’s Jeet Kune Do was much more than just a simple fighting style. It was a way of life.
Not only does Bruce’s art teach his students to free themselves of any set limits of a martial art. The real goal is to free oneself from any limitations that may hold you back as a person. This was what ultimately led to Kareem picking Bruce as a teacher and sticking with Jeet Kune Do.
Throughout Kareem’s basketball career, you would often see him meditating, in particular, practicing yoga. This helped Kareem overcome injuries and play at a high level for 20 years in the NBA.
As for Kareem and Bruce’s relationship, they held many similarities, like wanting to be the best at their crafts while finding their true selves. Still, when they first met, Kareem wasn’t completely sold on Bruce’s Jeet Kune Do until Kareem met Bruce’s wife, Linda.
Linda also practiced Jeet Kune Do, and the first time Bruce and Kareem met, Bruce asked Linda to give Kareem a demonstration.
(Starts at 40 seconds):
“I go over to Bruce’s house, and he asked me about what I trained, how I trained, what I’d done, and he told me to punch and kick this bag, and he stood behind the bag and had me punch and kick it, [he] said ‘that’s interesting.’
“Then he had his wife come out, Linda comes out, he says, ‘stand behind the bag, and Linda’s gonna kick the bag.’ And I’m like, ok, this is something that’s no big deal. Linda kicked, and the force that she put into the bag made me fly off at the other side, and it was like, geez, you know Linda only weighed maybe about 120, 125 pounds and could generate that kind of force.
“I immediately was won over, and I wanted to train with them, and was able to train with them for the next four years.”
Kareem’s relationship with Bruce went beyond just practicing martial arts in a studio. It eventually led to Bruce’s other passion in life, film. Bruce, of course, was the first true martial arts action star.
After failing to land a leading role in a film in America, Bruce went to Hong Kong and immediately became a star. He starred in films such as The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, and The Way of the Dragon, which Bruce wrote and directed, as well.
Bruce’s next film was another he wrote and planned to direct. This film was titled The Game of Death. For this film, Bruce asked if Kareem would like to co-star in it, and Kareem agreed.
The premise of Game of Death was that Bruce would make his way up a five-story pagoda, fighting a different master on each level in an attempt to save his younger sister and brother, who were kidnapped. At the top of the pagoda would be Kareem, the best fighter in the pagoda.
Bruce filmed a few scenes of the movie, including Kareem’s part, but he would put the movie on hold after Warner Bros. offered Bruce a starring role in a Hollywood movie titled Enter the Dragon. This was the movie that brought the martial arts film genre to Hollywood.
Bruce planned to finish The Game of Death after Enter the Dragon, but sadly, he passed away from cerebral edema in 1973. In 1978, other filmmakers finished The Game of Death and released it with obvious stunt doubles acting as Bruce and using badly cut-out photos of Bruce over the stunt double’s face at times.
The finished product also had a different storyline, and, overall, was not what Bruce would have wanted. Still, the actual fight scenes Bruce shot of himself and Kareem were used and are still to this day one of the most iconic movie fight scenes of all time.
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